Emotions
by mister-smee
Summary: Alt timeline. Nathan rubbed the back of his neck. He still couldn't figure out just exactly what he felt towards this girl. Maybe a hipster-ho was all he really needed. Caulscott


**from a prompt on tumblr: "caulscott thing in alt universe where nathan meets max and is like "OH MAN SHES SO CUTE AND COOL I WANT HER IN MY CLUB" and makes vic propose it to the others bc he doesnt want 2 seem smitten"**

 **alsO i suck at titles, just letting u know.**

* * *

"Are you kidding me, Nathan?"

"Do I sound like I'm fucking kidding, Vic?"

Victoria scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"And why exactly should _I_ pitch the idea to the club when _you_ are the one so obviously smitten by her?" She mused, raising an eyebrow.

"I am _not_ smitten-" He groaned, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets. "Look," He sighs, "I'm not smitten alright, I just think she'd be pretty cool in our club, y'know?" Victoria smirks slightly before uncrossing her arms and settling her hands on her hips.

"Then why don't _you_ do it?" She inquired. Good question. Maybe because he felt like a fucking pansy that he let himself develop this infatuation with a geek? Or maybe because Victoria always was more convincing than him. Who knows. Nathan silenced those thoughts and swallowed, wetting his lips before jerking his head away from Victoria's gaze.

"B-because-" He silently cursed at himself before leveling his voice again. "Because, you're one of the top members of the Vortex club, if you suggested it then people would probably be more for it. Probably."

"As are you, Nathan. Surely if the _great_ Nathan Prescott wanted someone in our club, then-" Nathan interrupted her with a groan and he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Whatthefuckever, can you just _please_ do this for me?"

Victoria smiled and strode over to him, gently patting his shoulder.

"You owe me one."

* * *

Nathan decided to opt out of accompanying Victoria on asking the Vortex Club about Max joining and instead settled on waiting in his dorm room for the answer. He felt almost ridiculous for being so.. so nervous about this.

Nathan collapsed onto his bed and smushed his face into his pillow. He turned his head and sucked in a breath and eyed his phone on his end table. He reached out and clicked the screen on.

 _[No new messages.]_

He groaned loudly and placed it back on the table and flipped over on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. He covered his eyes with his arm and let out another irritated sigh. He could imagine how off-put everyone was with Victoria's- or rather, his- request. It was plain for everyone at the school to see that no one in the Vortex Club liked Max; was there even any point in hoping that they'll agree to letting her in? Then again, no one really spoke to her.

Was asking Victoria to do this for him really just a huge mistake? All it would do is backfire on him. Give Victoria more fuel to tease him with. Frustrated, he wrenched his arm away from his face and let out a shaky breath. There were so many people at this school, so why did it have to be her? The one person that irritated his best friend most, the special snowflake, the girl who just has to take every opportunity to flash a picture, the selfie-ho of Blackwell. The one girl who is supposed to annoy the hell out of him, that's the one he's gotta fall for?

Nathan felt a smirk form on his lips.

 _'She's suppose to annoy the hell out of me.'_ He thought to himself. His smirk quickly faded away as his nose scrunched up in anger.

 _'No,'_ his thoughts continued, _'fuck that, she does. She annoys the living daylights outta me with her stupid fucking camera she takes everywhere, and her stupid fucking grey jacket she always wears, and the stupid fucking way she cares for everyone. Hell, even her name annoys the fuck out of me. 'Maxine Caulfield'. What kind of name is that? A fucking stupid one, that's what.'_

He exhaled slowly before turning his attention back to his phone. He sat up and leaned over, the dimmed screen reading the exact same message as before.

 _[No new messages.]_

He let out a sigh of frustration as he turned over in his bed and pressed his face back into his pillow. Nathan grunted angrily as he felt his irritation getting worse. He felt so stupid for letting himself get so roped up in his emotions. How could he let himself have feelings for a hipster like her? Why, was a better question. Realizing his angry was getting the better of him, Nathan dug his fingernails into his palms as he counted backwards from 10.

Maybe they'll all play it off as a joke and never bring it up and it'll just be one of those things. Remember that one time Nathan wanted Max to join the Vortex Club? Haha, hysterical!

His phone vibrated against the end table and Nathan shot up from his spot as quickly as possible. He lunged out and grasped his phone, fumbling slightly as he clicked on the screen.

 _[ **Victoria:** It took some convincing, but they all agreed._

 _Youre welcome.]_

Nathan let out the breath he didn't know he was holding and slumped back against the wall. His phone soon buzzed again.

 _[ **Victoria:** Im not gonna hold your hand the entire way, tho. You gotta tell her urself. Good luck, Prescott. ;)]_

In that moment, Nathan didn't know if he should be grateful or not.

* * *

It was hard for Nathan to sleep the past few days. The Vortex Club informed him that he had exactly three days to tell Max that she had been accepted. What was left of those three days was 6 hours. 'Mother fucking incredible, dude.' Nathan patronized himself.

He was pulled from his thoughts as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

 _[Victoria: So did you tell her yet?]_

Nathan scoffed.

 _[ **You:** hey how abt u fuck off]_

 _[ **Victoria:** Pussy]_

 _[ **You:** fuk off m8]_

 _[ **Victoria:** Seriously?]_

Nathan groaned. He didn't need this right now.

 _[ **You:** hey gr8 idea: u get off my fuckin back about this]_

 _[ **Victoria:** Ur the one who practically begged me to get ur little girlie into this club, least u can do is man the fuck up and_

 _actually tell her.]_

He ran his hand through his hair and huffed.

 _[ **You:** im fuckin tryin ok]_

 _[ **Victoria:** Obviously not hard enough.]_

He grunted in frustration and chucked his phone across the room before pulling his knees into his chest and threading his fingers through his hair.

 _'Can't she fucking see how difficult this fucking is?'_ He asked himself.

 _'It isn't difficult, you're just a coward.'_ A voice joined his. It sounded an awful lot like Victoria's. He breathed out slowly and

lifted his head, eyeing his phone from across the room.

It'd be simple, right? Just text her, meet her, tell her, leave. Short and sweet.

 _'Fuck everything.'_ He stood up from his spot on the floor and made his way over to where his phone had landed, leaning over and picking it up swiftly. He wet his lips before punching in his passcode and quickly tapping out his messages.

 _[ **You:** yo yo caulfield]_

 _[ **You:** its nathan]_

 _[ **You:** i got smth important i need 2 tell u]_

 _[ **You:** meet me outside my dorm in 10 min]_

Nathan slipped his phone into his jean pocket and ran his hand through his hair again. He cleared his throat before stepping outside his dorm room into the hall. He'll just… figure out what'll he'll say to her while he's waiting. Yeah. He locked his door and swallowed roughly, his heart already beginning to pick up pace. He licked his lips once again before turning around to exit the building, only to see Max conversing with Zachary across the hall.

He froze, eyeing the two from his door. Great fucking timing. Nathan straightened his jacket and ran his hand down his face, carefully watching them. There goes his plan for 'preparing himself'.

They soon said their goodbyes, but Max didn't notice him yet. No, instead she reached for her phone, and quickly scanned her new messages. Her face contorted as she tapped at her phone before stuffing her phone back into her pocket. She turned to leave, but spotted Nathan instead. He could feel his heart skip when they made eye contact. He felt his phone vibrate, he didn't check it.

Cautiously, Max wandered closer to him as Nathan tried not to lose all his marbles. He tried to play it cool, stuffing one of his hands into his jacket pocket. Soon, Max is in front of him, looking at him with alerted eyes.

"Nathan? You texted me?" Max asked. Nathan bit the inside of his cheek before jerking his head in a nod.

"Yeah."

Her eyebrows furrow slightly before she took a step closer.

"Did you have a reason? You said it was important.." She quickly looked him up and down before settling her gaze on his eyes. "..What's up?"

"Oh, uh." He averted her stare, coughing slightly into his hand. _'Don't look at me with those eyes, god damn it.'_

She raised one of her eyebrows, silently urging him to continue.

"You see uh-" Why is he getting so worked up right now? They've had conversations before, why is right now any different? He balled up his hand in his pocket and cleared his throat again.

"Look, you seem pretty cool." He rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke. "I mean, you're alright. Okay. And my friends-" He swallowed, his ears burning. "-I was wondering if you wanted to join the Vortex club." He didn't pose it as a question, more of a statement.

Max blinked slowly, looking at him with suspicion.

"And why exactly would I want to join your club?" She questioned, crossing her arms across her chest.

Nathan tugged lightly on his hair at the back of his head, refusing to allow his face to flush.

"Be- _because_ \- fuck, I don't know, okay?" He huffed, moving his hand to run through his hair. "I think you're cool, alright? And I think you'd make a pretty cool addition to our posy.. is all."

Max nodded once, clearly still not trusting him. Nathan huffed again, irritated.

"Okay, okay, how about this: Why don't you join us on our next meeting? Check it out and shit. See if you like it. If you don't then.." He bit the inside of his cheek. "..You don't hav'ta join, 'kay?" He proposed.

Max quirked an eyebrow, shifting her weight onto one foot.

"Alright."

"Alright?"

"Yeah, okay. I'll come with you to your next meeting." She smiled slightly.

Nathan blinked before stuffing his hand back into his pocket.

"Oh. Alright. Yeah. Cool."

Max uncrossed her arms and toyed with the strap to her camera bag.

"I'm curious about you, Nathan Prescott. Could it be, the Big Bad Wolf of Blackwell is really just a big softie?" Max let out a faint laugh before turning her back to him to exit the dorm hall. Nathan's words got caught in his throat. With the heat of the blush rising in his cheeks, he managed to stutter out a few words to her.

"H-hey, watch it Caulfield!" He called out, and to his surprise, she kept walking, thankfully never seeing the embarrassment flowing onto Nathan's cheeks. He saw her stop outside the dorm room as she reached for her camera, and dropped to the floor for a shot. Fucking hipster. Nathan rubbed the back of his neck. He still couldn't figure out just exactly what he felt towards this girl. Maybe a hipster-ho was all he really needed.

* * *

 **i wrote this in like two days straight, i haven't slept. here u go.**


End file.
